Falling births help drive 30pc drop in Catholic baptisms


A new briefing note from The Iona Institute has found that over the past 10 years, the number of baptisms…

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The Iona BlogMore Blogs

By Dr Angelo Bottone

Sinn Féin currently has a bill before the Dáil aimed at removing the three days a woman must wait before obtaining an abortion. If you recall, this was a ‘sweetener’ offered to voters in the abortion referendum of 2018 to induce...

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In some excellent news, the House of Commons has today voted against a new attempt to legalise assisted suicide. This is a huge victory for right-to-life campaigners, and interestingly lots of Labour MPs, who ardently believe in a ‘right’ to...

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The Catholic Education Partnership has told the UN that Ireland is discriminating against Catholic schools by forbidding them from admitting Catholic children first if a school is overenrolled. Other faith schools are allowed to favour children from their own religion...

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The stereotype suggests the housewives are an unhappy bunch. Think of the old hit TV series, ‘Desperate Housewives’. But a new study paints a different picture. Stay-at-home mothers are less likely to suffer from depression or suicidal thoughts, and their...

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Last week The Iona Institute published a widely covered briefing note called ‘Baptism Trends in Ireland’. What grabbed the headlines was the dramatic finding that the number of Catholic baptisms has fallen by 30pc in the last ten years. But...

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An important new study explores the causes of falling birth rates and unsurprisingly finds multiple causes but with the decline of marriage and intimate relationships playing a big part. The author, Tomáš Sobotka, is deputy director of the Vienna Institute...

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In The News

‘Start in your 20s’ leading demographer advises couples


A leading expert on falling birth rates has said that if a couple want to have two or more children, they should start trying in their 20s, rather than wait…

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Pope John Paul II’s Gospel of Life at 30 – A talk by Maria Steen

On Saturday May 3, 2025, Maria Steen (pictured) delivered a talk called “Evangelium Vitae at 30 – Pope John Paul…

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